S/O What is/was so special about your grandmother(s)?

I'm sorry for your loss. 

This has been VERY interesting to read!  

Our grandparents lived far away, so we didn't see them very often.  My maternal grandmother abused
my Mom physically and verbally as a child  . Mom was not only told she wasn't wanted, but she told
us that her Mom threw a frying pan at her head, and----this is VERY hard to type----  she also threw
my Mom's puppy down the stairs.  She ended up dying of kidney disease when my Mom was 15. 

 On a HAPPIER note, my very KIND grandpa married a SWEET lady
who I knew as my grandma.   Even though we didn't see them very often, I have lovely memories
of her.  Sadly, once her Dad got remarried to this sweet lady, my Mom resented her and was never
nice to her.  My Mom explained that as a 15-year-old, she enjoyed caring for her Dad after her mean
Mom was gone, and, she didn't feel that this new wife was "good enough" for her Dad. After my Mom died, she (step-grandma)
told me many years later that it always hurt her feelings that my Mom didn't invite her to her bridal
shower and other special occasions.  She also told me that she privately helped pay for Mom's college, and never told my Mom, since she didn't want her to think she was buying her love.    I wish my Mom had known, because going to college and grad school
meant the WORLD to  my Mom.  

(sidenote....sadly, my Mom died of alcoholism at 54.  She went through a LOT of therapy and tried to get over the
horrible abuse of her childhood.)


Now, onto Dad's parents......I've been told my paternal grandpa  was awesome!  Sadly, he died before I was born.  My Dad says he was funny, very well-mannered, quiet and kind...my Mom
was a very critical person, but she also LOVED her father-in-law!   As far as my grandmother----ummm....not so much!  I 
only remember her visiting twice, but have very vague memories.  She was mean to my Mom because she didn't feel
she was good enough for her only son. 

Interesting things I learned only a few years ago----Paternal grandfather graduated from M.I.T. with a degree in
(? can't remember what type) of Engineering at age EIGHTEEN!      My Dad jokes that he wishes he'd inherited that smartness!  
My Maternal grandmother worked as a surgical nurse in the operating room, and also as a pediatric nurse with "the polio
kids" as my Dad said they called them back then.  My Dad sometimes went to work with her and played with the kids--he
said he really enjoyed it. 

I love this thread so much I’m just going to add more memories.

My great grandmother was married at 15, in 1913. She skipped school, traveled across a bridge from Calais, Maine to St Stephen Canada and was married to her school sweetheart. He went away to war the next year just as she was about to have my grandmother.
My grandmother did not drive. She went everywhere by bus or walking. I remember many many times being excited to go places with her, because it always meant a meal at a drugstore soda fountain, but my legs just ached trying to keep up with her. She always smelled like White Shoulders, and to this day that scent will swamp me with memories.

My paternal grandma worked worked worked. It’s like she could never rest and feel good about it. So any memory I have of her involves work. She was a patient teacher, and showed me how to sew my own clothes. And even as a very small girl, I loved drying the dishes after Sunday dinner while she washed.
My mom was a neglectful alcoholic, so Dad would pick us up Sunday, take us to Grandma’s, and the first thing she would do is put us in the bathtub, and then dress us in clean clothes she kept at her house. At the time we just accepted this pattern, we never questioned why it was necessary.